Suit against spraying

By
Dana Larsen
on October 21, 2002

Residents of a small village in Ecuador have filed a class-action lawsuit against Dyncorp, the American company contracted to spray herbicides onto coca plantations in Colombia.
A report in the Dallas Morning News revealed that the Ecuador government is backing the lawsuit, filed in a Washington DC court. The lawsuit was launched by the small village of San Francisco 2, near the Colombian border.

A report by the environmental group Ecological Action claims that 10,000 Ecuadoreans have been harmed by the spraying, and that over 90% of all farmers living within six miles of the border report symptoms including respiratory problems, headaches, severe skin sores and intestinal bleeding.

The aerial spraying is financed by the US government, with personnel and expertise supplied under contract by Dyncorp. The planes spray Roundup Ultra, made by the Monsanto Company.

The suit seeks unspecified compensation from DynCorp, Monsanto and the US government, for crop damage and health problems caused by the spraying. Lawyers for DynCorp have argued that American courts don’t have jurisdiction, and that their spraying is supported by the US government.